Tasmanian Motorcycle Trials Club (Semi-Normal Programming Has Now Resumed)
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Tasmanian Motorcycle Trials Club (Semi-normal programming has now resumed) President: C Bayles First Aid: F Munday, H Statton Vice President: K Hosking Life Members: N Berne, P Lockhart, P Bayles Secretary: K Pickering Publicity Officer: I Pickering Treasurer: M Luscombe Scrutineers: M Amey, J Perkins. Newsletter/web: S Lockhart Photographer: A Lockhart Section Checkers: N Munday, K Pickering, P Lockhart, M Gabbedy July 2020 President’s Report G’day boys and girls, Chris here. How good was it to get the leg back over the bike and ride a competition? I have been hanging out to ride a section ever since the start of this COVID situation. Firstly, I would like to say well done to the Southern team for setting the trials spot on. It was on the easy side but that was fantastic for the first trials back and especially for the amount of new riders we had. The sections were a good length and had very good diversity. Those loose hills off the track were something else. Looking at the scores its safe to say they were set spot on for what the objective of that trials was. Reviewing the scores, it was safe to say who has been practising and who the old school style riders were. Some of those turns were the old back to basics style of riding. I thoroughly enjoy the property that property for an event, especially when we landed the weather that we did. It was a good turnout for the event after the break. All the old members looked like they enjoyed being back. Absolutely brilliant to see a good number of new riders and fingers crossed they come back again. The new riders looked like they enjoyed the challenge and joys of riding trials. Might be a good opportunity to do some training with a large number of new riders and kids within the club. Something to think about, get back to me if people would be interested in holding a training day. I have a few major thanks on behalf of the club to mention. Firstly, is to Ian for all the thought, effort and ensuring the COVID aspect was sorted. Pick instigated the observing and distancing issues that we had to abide by. Top job Pick. The other person who needs a mention is Samuel Lockhart for all the hours put in setting up the online entries, as well as the dedication to getting the results tallied and up online so quick. Not many clubs have results up after a competition as to what our tech man achieved. Thanks fellas for making it happen and for getting the job done. Just quickly while I’m on the band wagon for thanking. I would like to thank Nobby for coming up over a couple of weekends and helping get the clubs new container in some order. There are now shelves in the back and everything has a spot. All should be easy to manage now when it comes to large events where we need more gear for an event than what’s in the trailer. Nobby also gave me a hand to give the trailer a once over and have a big clean out the day before the trials. She’s about 2 ton lighter by the feel of it, she pulls fast down the road now. Cheers Nobby. Anyways that’s enough for me. New property for the next event. I’ve ridden there a few times and safe to say it’s worth the drive, it’s a pretty trendy little spot. Please drive safe to all those who are traveling long distances. See you all there. Looking forward to it. Out, Baylesy. COVID-19 I can guarantee just about everyone is sick of hearing about it, but it does need to be mentioned. Chris mentioned it above, I’ll expand on it a bit here. Many wouldn’t know how much work went on behind the scenes, there were online meetings, loads of emails, phone calls and SMS, all to get the COVID plan written up and formalised so we could get riding again. Co-ordinating an online meeting between people all around the state, with the ability to call in by phone too, isn’t as simple as it is in workplaces with dedicated hosted services, but we got there and it worked pretty well. The online meeting software was, ironically, Jitsi, a name which would be familiar to almost any trials rider, albeit missing an e on the end. Ken, Ian, Kurt and Mick did a heap of work there, and my bit as well with the entries. Thank you to all who helped out, participated, gave ideas and all that. The COVID recovery document is available on our website if you’ve not seen it: https://www.tastrials.org.au/forms/covid19/ Also, a huge thank you to all those who used the online entry, it was a time saver (and would have been even more of a time saver if the scoring sheet didn’t mess it’s pants on Sunday night, resulting in me doing it a second time). I’ve had a couple of reports from people saying they get a message about the date format being incorrect. Don’t type in the box, click in the box and select the date from the calendar, it’ll work. Safari has some issues with it, that’s not something I can test for though. Anyway, we’ll keep using it in its current form for the rest of the year, it might change a bit over the off season but I’ll keep it super simple. I’m planning on having an online form for club membership ready for the start of 2021 as well, but it’s not ready yet. If you’ve got someone who wants to join the club, there’s a ‘manual’ form to fill out on the website on the entry page. Melton Mowbray Gee, been a while since I’ve done this. Fun facts: According to the 2016 Census, 65 people call themselves residents of Melton Mowbray. Originally it was called Cross Marsh, but a guy, Samuel Blackwell, moved here from Melton Mowbray in the UK and built the Melton Mowbray hotel. Eventually, the name was changed from Cross Marsh to what we know it as today. That hotel still stands, and about 30 years ago I had a feed there. I can remember, vaguely, what it looked like inside and I might get to see inside it again in the future, there’s plans to get it back in operation. Anyway, on to bike things. After waiting since the Tas Titles way back at the start of March, we finally got to compete, albeit slightly differently to normal. No observers and, after milking Kmart dry of clickers, punching our own cards, plus the new normal social distancing stuff. The clicker thing might have altered some of the results, I noticed when doing the scoring that more riders than normal either missed sections, or rode them and forgot to click their own card. There were a couple of cases where more than one score was clicked for the same section. If you stuff up a card, it’s ok, just head back to the tent to get a new one, or explain it to whoever is there and they can sort it out. Now that scoring is done after the event, I can’t chase people down to see what was going on. The entrance to the site looked a fair bit different to last time, but the venue itself was the same. That lovely green open area, and the first couple of sections covered in bark. I’d set fire to it if it were my property, but unfortunately, it isn’t. Sections were set on the easier side of things, a wise move considering the length of time most people had spent off the bike, and were very well spaced out. There was a bit of everything, some great sized rocks, logs, uphill, downhill, green grass and sandy soil covered in bracken fern. Don’t feed too much of that to a goat, I’m told they eat it but it makes them sick. There were a bunch of new riders too, which is great to see, especially in the current economic crapshoot. If you’ve got a spare bike and want to sell it, now is the time, there’s a lot of keen buyers and not many bikes on the market. Cooper rode the Junior sections and won, but he didn’t have it all his own way. Chris Bayles looked like he had it in the bag until he had to put his foot down to get over a log. Rosie Viney also had an unscored ride on these sections, but Cooper assures me he beat her. Young Max Goodall had a serious upgrade since his last outing, aboard a Gas Gas Cadet, piloting it to third. Millie is loving the smoother power of her Gas Gas 125, finishing in second, behind Stevie Homan. Mick Luscombe lent his main bike to the semi-mainlander Chris, so we got to see the beautiful Suzuki twin shock in action in, well, Twinshock. He won too. C Grade was a mixed bag of new riders and old stalwarts. Not much separated the top three, Mike Travica made doing the results easy with only two points lost. Bob Perkins doubled Mike’s score to finish in second, and Newsletterman finished third. You thought C Grade was close? Look at C+! How often do two people drop just 8 points and tie, finishing in 5th and 6th? Nobby Gabbedy finished in third, one point behind Chris Dillon, while Jack Salter made his presence felt with a win.